Vigor of Twelve is a play off of the fact that Jesus had twelve disciples. It is a name that helps stress an importance on discipleship. This blog is specifically geared for younger people and mature Christians who don't mind a fresh, bold, and blunt approach to faith. Comments welcome, let's begin the discussion!

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Thursday, June 9, 2016

Luke 11:1-4

Luke 11:1-4

And it became in His being in some place while praying, as
He stopped, some of His disciples spoke to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as
John taught his disciples.” And He said to them, “Whenever you should pray, say
this. Father, let your name be
holy. Let your kingdom come. Give us our daily bread each day. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive them
to all who owe us. And you should not
lead us into temptation.”

Thoughts
for Today

First Thought:

Jesus’ disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray. Before we get to the meatier ending, we
should spend a cursory amount of time on the necessary beginning. First of all, not that Jesus teaches them to
address the Father with personal reverence.
He is our Father. He is our
spiritual Daddy. But He is also
holy. Remember that in the Bible the
word holy means “different” or “separate.”
That’s why we address the Father with personal reverence. He is close to us and He is in relationship
with us. But He is still not like
us. Second, notice that Jesus teaches
the disciples to not be afraid of reminding God of their needs. We need things like bread and the Kingdom of
the Lord. It’s okay for us to express
them before the Father. It isn’t that He
doesn’t already know that we need them.
But often human beings just need to be heard.

When you think of God, do you think in terms of personal
reverence? How do you revere God
personally? What needs do you often
place before God?

Second Thought:

I love to pause on the line in the Lord’s prayer that deals
with forgiveness. So often we say this
line and teach that it is a reminder of us to forgive others because God has
forgiven us. But, that’s not really how
the Greek reads. The Greek reads that
these are simultaneous tasks. We don’t
forgive because we’ve been forgiven; we forgive because that’s what righteous
people do! Now, don’t get me wrong. We do follow God’s lead and we certainly
could not have the ability to be righteous if He did not empower us to be
so. But so often we think in our minds, “Oh,
I have to forgive them or else I’m not following God.” That’s wrong, and that’s the point I’m trying
to make. This isn’t a verse to guilt us
into reluctantly having a forgiving personality. This is a verse teaching us that a person who
has adopted God’s righteousness looks forward to receiving the opportunity to
forgive. We ask God to forgive us and we
are already in the habit of forgiving others.

Do you forgive reluctantly?
Do you forgive freely? What circumstances
cause you to be more reluctant or more free with your grace?

Third Thought:

The last petition is one that usually
draws a smirk out of me. As he writes
this, Luke uses the subjunctive mood. “You
should not lead us into temptation.” If
you read it one way, it sounds like a parent warning a child that they shouldn’t
be doing something that they are contemplating doing. Of course, that’s not how Luke means it
here. Who are we to think that we could
tell God what to do? Furthermore, who
are we to think that something God does is not righteous? No, this verse is more of a reminder to
ourselves. If God is leading us
somewhere, we should know that it isn’t temptation. The contrapositive is also necessarily true. If we are being tempted, then we should know
that it isn’t God who is leading us.

When are you tempted? Are you ever tempted to think that God is
leading you into temptation? What makes
something a temptation for you?